Importing export zones: processes and impacts of replicating a Chinese model of urbanization in rural south India

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the development of a south Indian “industrial city”, modelled on a Chinese counterpart. The privately-operated city is a key example of India’s new-style Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These represent a national shift, motivated by China’s SEZ success, from enclave-style “export processing zones” to integrated townships. Drawing on fieldwork from 2018, we compare three issues with the Chinese “model”: the city’s establishment and spatial planning; the gendered hiring practices of its firms; and its incorporation of local villages. These three aspects represent different mechanisms through which the “model” is translated into the Indian context, by different actors, with different outcomes. In line with policy mobilities scholarship, we argue that models cannot be straightforwardly replicated, and we call for more attention to the outcomes of attempted replication, in particular the urban development implications of selective, complex, multi-level adaptation of a Chinese “model” and its interaction with local Indian contexts.